One and two
by Yanagi Nagi
Summary: The number one, the number two, and the stories around them. Chapter 1 : Yup, today was, officially, his worst day ever.


**Hello everyone, I am more or less back for more stories for Type-0. This time I'm contributing a collection of oneshots for my OTP for this fandom which is Ace x Deuce. There would be combination of AU and OU (Original Universe or Canon Universe) for them. **

**They're mostly taken straight from my roleplaying log with Brion, a good friend of mine (who goes by Blessed with Jerkass in this site, IIRC? Not that I think he's still active in this site). And knowing how ninety percents of roleplaying goes… Well, you can expect a lot of humor and drama, and definitely mixture of both.**

* * *

_One, two, and stalking [AU]_

* * *

A sigh had never been more appropriate.

"Ace-san, they went that way. Let's go."

Scratch that, two sighs would do justice to his situation.

"Coming right up."

Ace still couldn't understand why in the name of whatever gods that existed that he was now spending his precious holiday in here; an amusement park with Deuce. No, it was not as romantic as it sounded, because neither of him and his brunette friend was here to enjoy themselves. They were here to… stalk a certain couple, no thanks to Deuce's idea.

At first, Ace had planned to just lay down on his bed until noon and then go somewhere calm and soothing like a café or even a library for the rest of this peaceful Sunday. However, the sudden ring from his fellow classmate was all it takes to destroy his plan. Initially, he had refused when she had said that she needed a partner to do this silly idea of hers and he had asked her to find someone else.

Ace thought he had it his way, but Deuce proved to be too much to handle when she was so determined. She just had to _barge_ in to the male dormitory and _politely _asked him to accompany her to a 'date' with her. At that point, Ace had no other choice but to say yes to her request.

Oh, this couple that he was talking about? They went by the name Cinque and Trey respectively.

He had hoped that he could, at least, enjoy the fresh breeze in the amusement park despite how forced he was in the wild ride. But in the end, that was only a false hope; Deuce had pushed him to stay with her in the bushes, a lot. The only freshness that Ace got was the fresh smells of dead crickets and other insects around him.

Even though Ace had audibly refused and groaned in disagreement at her method, Deuce's eyes were not paying attention at him at all, they were still dead set on spying her classmate with her date. One more thing that Ace had learned today was that Deuce could be a bit… blockhead, for the lack of better words. For real, she had even disguised herself with sunglasses and a relatively big sunny hat.

"So, where do you want to go next?" Trey asked his junior with a smile, definitely not noticing the two people in the bush.

"Cinque wants to ride the rollercoaster next!" the braided girl replied cheerfully as she punched the air.

And just like that, the young couple went on their way, leaving both the stalker in their spots again.

"Let's go after them."

Her absurdly serious tone would amuse Ace to no end if he was _not_ so annoyed by his own circumstance.

"Before that, just tell me something, Deuce," he managed to say his opinion on the subject coolly, despite his mood. "Why are we doing this?"

"I'm worried," she quickly replied.

Thank you very much, Deuce McCaptain Obvious.

"And why are you worried?" Ace retorted back. "Trey-senpai is a good friend of your big brother, isn't he? He won't do anything bad to Cinque."

Even if Ace himself was not a social butterfly in the school, Trey's aristocratic and gentlemanly attitude was not a secret to anyone. He was so famous for his nature that he got his own fans club in the school. Furthermore, his friendship with King-senpai, who was Deuce's big brother, was not yesterday news as well. People could almost always practically see the two best friends did things together.

So putting the math together, Deuce should've already Trey knew better than he was.

But instead of answer that Ace had expected, Deuce fumed back at him. "It's not Cinque that I'm worried for."

…Oh…

"I'm sure Ace-san understands what I mean," she added.

…Well, that sealed the deal. At least now Ace knew that her reason for pulling him around the whole place was not entirely baseless. He, after all, had become one of the victims for Cinque's weird antics once. Don't ask what, he didn't want to remember them himself.

Ace kinda felt sorry for Trey-senpai now that everything dawned on him.

"Well?" Deuce asked. "Shall we go before we lost them?"

He let out another sigh before he concurred with her.

* * *

Let's see… Rollercoaster, Troika, Orbiter, Sky Swat, and… Freefall… And after that…

…Dear god, he had forgotten what kind of rides that he had to go through to stalk Trey-senpai and Cinque. One thing that he could never forget was the nonstop twisting inside his stomach, that was for sure.

"Deuce," he asked while catching his breath. "How… much attraction that we have… ridden…?"

"I… don't know anymore…" unsurprisingly, Deuce was almost as beaten as he was, if not worse, as seen from her current appearance. She had lost her hat and sunglasses disguise after those numbers of crazy rides. "I lost count after eleven…"

What surprising was that both Trey and Cinque didn't seem to be whacked out any bit. Ace could understand where Cinque was coming from, but Trey? He didn't have any idea that he could cope this amazingly with his most random classmate.

And just before Ace and Deuce, once again Trey and Cinque entered yet another attraction.

"W-We're going to lose them-!" Deuce admitted, obviously forcing herself to even stand on her spot. "Let's… go after them, Ace-san-!"

Deuce, even though she was definitely out of her breath, chased after them. Ace could only fret on his spot.

"She just won't let me rest, will she?"

Ace had no other choice but to grab a hold of himself. Against his youthful will, he then followed Deuce's trail, slowly but steady.

Today was probably his worst day ever.

* * *

Deuce's vision was already skiing around so much that she wasn't even sure anymore whether those two persons that she was following were Trey and Cinque. Not only that, her stomach also felt like it was hit by two trucks that she was sure that she could vomit anytime from all the rides that she had went through. Still, she had a mission to make sure that Cinque wouldn't do anything bad to Trey-san _and_ everyone around her. Deuce knew pretty well what kind of chaos would ensue should Cinque started to do things in her way, and she definitely couldn't let that happen.

With sheer determination only, Deuce's already limp legs were able to bring her figure to the spot where Trey and Cinque had entered. Or not. She would have hit the cold floor in exhaustion if Ace was not there to hold her forearm firm.

"S-sorry, Ace-san…"

"Don't mention it, let's just not lost them so that our works here are not for nothing."

"Mmm."

With that, Deuce seemed to be able to regain her composure before she went to the entrance with Ace following closely behind her, reluctantly of course.

"Welcome, are you going to enter with your boyfriend there?" behind the counter, the middle aged female ticked vendor asked with a smile, indicating a tired, not-paying-attention Ace behind Deuce.

"O-oh, no," Deuce gave an embarrassed nod as she took out her money to pay. "He's just a friend."

"Aww, why? He is pretty cute," the vendor asked with a teasing giggle as she gave Deuce a pair of tickets. "Honey, you'll definitely get your chance to advance here. This place is pretty dark and nobody could even look at you. Why don't you go for it?"

Deuce didn't even register the vendor's words anymore as she grabbed the tickets. Maybe she was too tired to listen to the end, or maybe she was too shy to listen, or maybe both.

Yet, after she had passed Ace his own share of ticket, and she had stepped in to the attraction, the vendor's words rang by her ears again, slowly and emphasizing on every syllable of them. The creepy laughs from the background didn't help her at all.

"Deuce?" Ace said curiously as he witnessed Deuce stopped walking in front of him.

The said girl gulped in a lump in her throat as she stood petrified on her spot. The place was pretty dark and Ace could barely see her expression, but on a closer look, the color on Deuce's face seemed to be drained.

"U-um… A-Ace-san…" the girl's voice was pretty shaky as she tried to make sure of things. "…T-this here couldn't p-possibly be…?"

"This here couldn't possibly be?"

"A-a h-_haunted_-"

"Oh, you mean that? Yes, this is the Haunted House."

Yup, much to Deuce's horror, they had just entered the wrong hole. The brunette tried her best to hide her fear, but what came out of her mouth was panicked shriek and sort.

"…If you're that scared, then why did you enter?" Ace made a face at her, stating the obvious.

"I-I didn't notice that this is the Haunted House…" Deuce admitted weakly. "B-but Trey-san and Cinque definitely went this way…"

"Well… we definitely can't see them in this dark," the blonde added, glancing back steadily at the closed door behind him. "Anyway, we can't walk back to get out of here. We need to get out from the other side."

"F-From the other side… R-right…"

Deuce was mumbling to herself, but her voice was audible enough for Ace. It was obvious, the creakiness in her tone was too strong, and the way Deuce was twirling her foot against the floor in anxiety just made everything too painfully clear that she was absolutely terrified of the idea walking through the path to outside.

Ace couldn't help but sigh as he looked at her condition. "You don't need to push yourself, Deuce. We can always call the officials and say that you're not feeling well."

That was actually the wisest move here, as Ace would like to think, but again, Deuce just had to be so stubborn at the wrong time. She shook her head in refusal, despite her trembling.

"N-No, i-it's fine! L-let's get out of here fast-!"

That was what she said, but three steps in and a one-eyed ghost jumped at her, all hell literally broke loose.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**"

Deuce's shriek of terror was… _obviously _terrorizing Ace's ears, and that was probably the understatement of the century. Sure, Ace had expected her to scream at any given moment when he had noticed that she was not really fond of this place, but he _had not_ expected the frequency of her scream to be this destructive to his hearing.

Yup, today was, officially, his worst day _ever_.

"KYAAAAH! D-DON'T COME HERE-!"

Sadly for Ace, Deuce didn't seem to want to stop at just that. She went from bad to worse, or maybe from worse to worst; she was crying, probably from being too overly paranoid at her surroundings. The one eyed ghost that had appeared before her, instead of just passing by around normally, paused dead on its track before it averted its attention to the brunette menacingly. Well, Ace couldn't really blame the ghost's actor for his behavior, it was basically his job to scare the living daylight out of the visitors.

However, not blaming the ghost didn't mean that Ace would do nothing. Besides, if Deuce kept on screaming, there were the chances that Trey and Cinque might be able to overhear it and such, blowing their disguises in instant. He definitely didn't want that.

Hence, the first thing that Ace attempted to make things better to their side was to step over to Deuce's side and clamped her mouth close with his hand before she could let out a shriek further.

"Deuce… Calm down, calm down…" the golden haired youth coolly whispered over to his friend's ears in a reassuring tone. "There's someone inside it. It's not a real ghost."

Unfortunately, Ace's words didn't seem to work as effective as he originally planned. Granted that Deuce seemed to catch his drift, but her emotion and her body didn't seem to obey her will, she was too overwhelmed by her fear of ghost to make a proper reaction.

"N-Not a-a... real… g-ghost…" Deuce's voice was practically similar to a dying bird's chirp now, the corner of her eyes were letting out tears, probably out of fear. "B-But…"

Good, she was able to regain her composure a bit. It was the right moment to assure her further, then. "Sshh… It's okay," Ace added silently as he wiped the tears out of Deuce's eyes gently. "You can just close your eyes and hold on to me, I'll get us outside."

Man, if Eight or Nine were here to see that, they would have already commented about how smooth Ace sounded just now. Ace even felt embarrassed himself when he realized that he just said that kind of words.

Fortune was finally on Ace's side as Deuce seemed to take up on his offer and the ghost seemed to give the… young 'couple' their moments by walking away from them, although it didn't go as perfect as his prediction. After Deuce had stared at Ace for a moment and finally finished sobbing, she immediately slid back to Ace's rear and she circled her arms around his. After that, as if she had finally found a comfort in the form of Ace's arm, she held on it like her entire life depended on it and she buried her face against his back, her eyes clenched close.

"L-Let's g-get out of here, Ace-san…" Deuce begged, her voice muffled thanks to her face position on Ace's back. "…Quick…ly…"

…Dear god, was it just him? Or Deuce sounded so cute when she— Ah, nope, she had _always_ been this cute. It was just that he had rarely paid much attention at that side of her.

Unknown to himself, Ace's face was burning red as he witnessed Deuce's frail side, and it was only getting redder when she cling tightly around his arm. He was very thankful that the Haunted House was pretty dark to hide the color of his face.

"A-aah…" despite his embarrassment, Ace managed to give her a straight confirmation. "Tell me if I walked too fast."

"U-umm…!"

After inhaling a deep breath once, Ace slowly let his legs do the work. For now, stalking Trey-senpai and Cinque was his second priority, getting out of the place was the first. He made sure that with every step that he took, Deuce coped with things better.

It was a pretty slow progress, but things worked perfectly. As he felt that Deuce's trembling was getting less and less horrendous, he made a small relieved smile to himself.

Unfortunately… Ace seemed to forget the fact that he was not really immune to ghosts himself, at least until he stumbled against a horde of zombies with perfect make-ups. It was probably Ace's turn to shriek the living crap out of him as he ran with his tail between his legs.

Their trip to the attraction's exit then ended more way hilarious than everyone had ever thought.

* * *

Ace thought he was done for in the nastiest way ever possible.

Luckily, that was merely his thought as he was able to get out of that… hellhole and he was now trying to catch his breath from running away too much. Everything was so hideous and nothing was sacred anymore.

Was it too late to find a heart donor now? His heart seemed to be going to stop in any minute, for a lot of reason.

"…Well," Ace let out a relieved sigh out of his exasperation. "That was interesting, wasn't it?"

For the first time today, Ace didn't sound as if he was burdened. In fact, his tone went the same as his expression, he was actually amused despite what he had just been through. That might be one of the childish side that Ace had kept hidden inside, and he was thankful for that.

The schoolgirl in casual clothes by his side, however, begged to differ.

"…Deuce…?"

Unlike Ace's situation, Deuce wasn't boding well at all. She had totally lost her composure. The brunette's state hadn't even changed ever since she had entered the haunted house. Her green irises were still clenched close tightly, and her arms were still circling Ace's arm.

Man, now that he remembered it, Deuce's grip around his arm was so hella tight. Whoever could thought with such slender body, her arm strength might be able to crush Ace's poor upper arm if he'd let this continue.

And for goddess' sake, she was still chanting some weird mantra for her safety.

"I-It's going to be okay, Deuce… You can do it. You can walk outside…"

…Yep, she was really paranoid of ghost, alright. Ace could attest to that. As he, once again, let out a sigh, Ace carefully patted Deuce's trembling shoulder.

"Deuce?"

"A-aaah-!"

Instead of an immediate response, Deuce let out a quick, low yelp before she clenched her eyes close even tighter than before and continue on with her… 'protective chant'.

"I-It's not real-! It's not real-! GHOSTS AREN'T REAL, DEUCE!"

Ace couldn't help but laughed a bit at Deuce's antics.

"We're outside already."

Instant dead silence from Deuce's end.

In a flash, Deuce's eyes flashed open as she looked up, right toward Ace, who was earnestly laughing softly at her. The brunette blinked her eyes twice in confusion before everything dawned on her.

With a small shriek, she quickly released her grip as she went beet red until her ears. "S-Sorry… I thought we're still inside…"

…Have anyone ever told Deuce that she looked so adorable; blushing, fidgeting, and twirling her toe on the ground awkwardly like that?

"Don't worry about it," Ace replied back, softly giving Deuce a pat on her petite head. "Thanks to that, I was able to see a different side of you, Deuce."

It was definitely a "Pot was calling kettle black" for Ace since (probably) unbeknownst to her, he had almost lost his sanity totally back there. But hey, it seemed to work to his favor, considering the pout Deuce was making in front of him.

"It's not funny, Ace-san."

"It isn't," he amusedly continued. "It's cute."

Ace was being Ace. It was not even in the slightest of his intention to make her blush from that. But Deuce did, probably from her forehead to her chin. She opened her mouth to make a protest to that, but no words were out, probably due to her inner embarrassment.

In the end, she could only sweep her face aside so that she couldn't see him right in the eyes, as well as pushing and rotating Ace's figure a bit so that he couldn't try to look at her face as well.

"L-Let's just follow them, Ace-san…"

Without even seeing his face, she could overhear him laughing a bit in front of her.

"You say that like it's going to be easy, Deuce," he commented back, sighing. "We lost their tracks."

…

…_Oh, __**great**__._

"Then let's look for them, Ace-san," Deuce returned his statement with hers. "They can't be that far."

Ace stopped dead in his track as she said that, before he turned his face to stare at her, his eyes giving the 'are-you-fricking-kidding-me' vibe from their reflections. "You can't be serious, Deuce. This amusement park is at least four times bigger than our school, and that's saying much already."

"I am serious, Ace-san. I'll go that way and Ace-san can go that way," the brunette replied, indicating the path that she was taking. "Also, please keep your phone on so that I can contact you anytime."

Deuce didn't give Ace any second to voice his opinion on this further, much to his dismay. Her petitie figure quickly slipped away to run to the other side of the park, leaving Ace in the dust.

Why did she have to be so goddamn stubborn at times like this!?

Once again, Ace scratched his hair in frustration, probably cursing his situation a bit before he did the inevitable: Going to the other way to find any trace of Trey and Cinque. After all, it was not like Ace had any other choice.

* * *

Deuce was the first one to find her female classmate with her date. After she had quickly informed Ace, he ran to the designated spot as fast as he could. Thankfully, both Trey and Cinque didn't seem to notice them. Yet.

The game of stalking began once again.

This time, though, both Ace and Deuce didn't bother to jump in and join the attractions like before. They realized already that their bodies would definitely not be able to keep up with Cinque's, and to a lesser extent, Trey's. This time they were doing things the more intelligent way by securing a safe spot to spy on them from distance.

Bushes, vending machines, ice cream sellers, hotdog stands, and many other things were involved in the process of Ace and Deuce's stalking.

When the sun was starting to set, Trey's and Cinque's paces were getting slower. Thankfully. Although that could only mean that both Ace and Deuce needed to adapt with their paces and proceed as slow as them, and they did just that.

Cinque's latest (and hopefully, last) attraction of choice was unsurprisingly the most childish one, Merry-Go-Round.

"Huh, guess even Trey-senpai realizes his dignity. We can rest on this one, Deuce."

What he meant obviously was his third year senior, who supposedly refused to join the ride with his date, only staying by the fences of the said attraction and waving back at Cinque at every time she chimed in cheerfully.

Speaking of which, there was no response from Deuce, even though he just blatantly called her name? Ace looked over the top of his shoulder behind…

…Only to find that she was not actually beside him.

When the golden haired boy turned his body around, he did able to notice her, however. She was standing pretty far from him, although she was still walking toward him, in a pace that could probably rivaling a turtle's.

Ace quirked one eyebrow at that. Well, it didn't really come out as a surprise to see that Deuce was probably tired from all that hiding and running from their target's line of sight. Ace could easily understand that, really. He was pretty beat up himself and he swore that he could faint at any given moment after this was all done. Letting his mouth to release a sigh, Ace put one of his hands on his hip before he approached the slowing Deuce.

As he drew closer to her, however, Ace found out one new thing. The reason why Deuce was slowing down was probably not because she was tired. Her full attention was somewhere else instead of Trey and Cinque. Her green eyes were locked to the big attraction on her right side.

It was the Ferris Wheel.

Ace, too, averted his eyes, trailing over to what exactly Deuce was gazing at. Not that he could blame Deuce for being captivated on the thing. The Ferris Wheel's design was pretty good and the highest part of the attraction, if he might guess, would probably high enough to get bird-eye vision of the whole amusement park. The lamps that were turned on also blended in beautifully with the sunset panorama to make it even better.

He was about to remind Deuce about their 'mission' when he took notice of her expression. To say that Deuce was curious was an understatement. She was obviously captivated at the attraction, for a reason that Ace couldn't tell. Ace's lips gaped open when he scanned Deuce's face, albeit they were closed again after a while.

Ace knew exactly what he needed to do.

"Deuce."

The said girl let out a small surprised gasp, her head quickly rotated to gaze back right against Ace's. In front of her, Ace's façade was so… uncharacteristically stern. Well, she had seen him use that kind of face once or twice, but this was the first time she had seen him using that while being borderline angry at the same time.

"Oh, right. I'm really sorry," she smiled weakly, if not apologetically at Ace, her head tilted to the side a bit. "Trey-san and Cinque are over there, right? Let's get closer to them."

Deuce resumed her pace, about to walk past him. She was _about _to. When Ace's hand was grabbing her's and stopping her from doing so.

The brunette looked at their connecting hands confusedly for a moment, before her eyes trailed to Ace's face. "Ace-san?"

"Come."

She couldn't even begin on how to describe her surprise when Ace was pulling her to walk in the direction that didn't lead them to Trey and Cinque's location. Instead, he was leading her to the queue line of the attraction that Deuce had personally took interest at.

"A-Ace-san? W-Where are we going?"

It came out of her mouth like a squeak instead of a question, for the better or worse.

"Look, Deuce, you've been pulling me around for the whole day," Ace replied even though he didn't even look back at her. "Now, it's only fair that you're the one being pulled around for at least once."

"B-But…"

Even though Deuce said that, it was not like there was any resistance coming from her end, per se.

"Sorry, I'm not listening, and besides…"

As they were lining up for their turn, Ace turned his attention back to Deuce, the tiniest yet the most comforting smile tweaked his lips.

"You want to ride this, don't you?"

Deuce's cheeks were blushing pink, either because of Ace's actually-correct assumption or because that charming smile of him… Or maybe both. Awkwardly, the sixteen years old girl diverted her face aside, carefully so that he wouldn't be able to see her embarrassing expression right now. "T-That's…"

"We're in an amusement park, after all," Ace assured. "There's no point in being here if we don't actually amuse ourselves."

Deuce swore that she had a good comeback for that, or she would like to think so. Still, before she could even muster her willpower to say it back at Ace, it was already their turn to get in the small chamber of the spinning attraction.

At first, Deuce was still a bit reluctant to enter, but after a little push from both of the officials as well as Ace, she braced herself to enter with Ace following right after his classmate, sitting right across her.

Their trip to the peak was not exactly colored with a lot of conversation, with Deuce being rather nervous, if not outright shy, and Ace being… the social butterfly Ace was.

When they were at the top, or at least close enough to the top, however, it was all changed. Deuce, who had actually been enthusiastic about the ride deep inside, was gradually changing her expression. While at first she looked nervous, when they were at the highest point of the attraction, she couldn't contain her excitement. She was looking through the clear glass for the scenery below excitedly like a small kid. "Ace-san, look! Look!"

He could only smile, if not chuckling heartily at her reaction. "I know, I'm looking at them."

Deuce didn't seem to take anything negative from Ace's response, even though there was actually none of them. Still with her cheeks blushing faintly, she smiled warmly at him.

"It's beautiful."

She was certainly indicating the panorama outside of the attraction, and Ace could not disagree with her at all… But for the love of whatever god or goddess out there, Ace found himself captivated by something even more beautiful than the scenery outside.

It was Deuce's smile.

Or maybe it was her voice. Or maybe even her face, if not her hair and eyes. Her figure could be one as well.

Blast it all, everything about this girl in front of him was very beautiful.

"Y-yeah… I-It's beautiful…"

Goddammit, that stuttering was not cool. Not even in the slightest. Thankfully, Deuce didn't seem to mind. She was averting her eyes back to stare at the scenery instead, her mouth autonomously gaping open as she let out a barely audible 'Wow' in amazement.

Ace was averting his eyes as well, obviously. To make sure that Deuce couldn't see the mad density of red blushes on his face. Thanks to this action of his, he didn't seem to notice that Deuce was staring back at his awkward sitting figure.

"…I'm really sorry, Ace-san."

Her words recovered his focus, thankfully. Ace was quick to stare back at Deuce when she called his name, an inquisitive look set on his eyes, possibly due to her random apology.

"You refused to come with me, but I still forced you to go along with me…" Deuce spoke, her frequency of voice pretty low. "I mean, I just barged to your room like that…"

"Are you angry at me, Ace-san?"

Ace had always known that Deuce was not exactly the most secretive girl out there. Sure, she might have some things bottled inside her whatever that was, but Ace, as well as the rest of her classmate could tell easily that Deuce was probably the most genuine person in the world. When she was thankful, she was deeply thankful. When she was happy, she was heartily happy. When she was regretful, she was regretful to her core.

The last one, for instance. He could easily tell that from her statement. There was nothing else that could describe her current expression but apologetic.

Ace was locking his eyes at hers for a short moment, thinking for a right counter to that. There was nothing else that flashed in his thoughts but this, in the end.

"Do you want me to?"

She shook her head slowly, prompting Ace to make a small smile back.

"Then I won't."

Deuce knew that she only knew him for less than one year, but Ace was possibly one of the sweetest guy that she had ever met, even if she were to count her big brother and his best friend in. He was so good at not showing them on the surface, though.

"Thank you very much, Ace-san, you're really kind," Deuce smiled again. "I promise that I will repay this with anything that Ace-san want. Just say the word."

Now that was what Ace would call as a bold move.

"…Anything?" Ace asked curiously.

Deuce's answer was quick and blunt. "Anything."

For the flashiest of the moment, Ace just had the most perverted thought that he ever had.

…But no, his code did not let whatever perverted ideas that Machina, Nine and Eight had injected to him got the best of him. Especially with Deuce waiting in front of him, giving him a lot of faith that he would not do what he would definitely not do.

To be quite frank, Ace knew what he wanted, though. It was just… that might sounded even bolder than what Deuce had said. He looked at Deuce again, hoping that he could find any other things that would be less straightforward than what he had in mind.

But no, Deuce's smile was not giving him any other ideas. If any, it was only embracing the very idea.

…Oh well, he had nothing to lose even if she refused, anyway. Even though he was blushing a bit, Ace braced himself to voice his request after he had taken a deep breath.

"Then let's go here again," Ace stated, sounded more nervous than ever. "Next week."

Deuce didn't even know how to react to that. Or maybe her brain just stopped working for a moment and slowing her down to decipher his intention.

His next word was the antidote to that, however.

"You and me, just the two of us. No Trey-senpai nor Cinque to stalk, no hide and seeking on the bush, or in a more direct terms…" Ace continued his explanation. "Will you go on a date with me, Deuce?"

Ace didn't even know what was with his rushing heart as he said that or what prompted him to even having that kind of idea, ever. Hell, he didn't even know whether he liked her as more than a friend or not.

Ace just wanted to see Deuce's smile again, and he knew that asking her to go here again in the future would guarantee him her radiant smile. A lot of it, if he was lucky.

Deuce's reaction was surprising him, to say the least. Ace didn't expect her to turn so speechless nor did he expect her to grab the hem of her skirt tightly like that. Most of all though, he definitely did not expect her to blush crazily.

If he was going by manga theories that he had ever read, it was as if she was harboring a romantic interest for him.

N-nah, he was probably reading too much to it. After all, he was not as dense as how Machina or Rem put him, right!? …Or at least that was what he would like to think.

Suddenly, one second of waiting for her answer seemed to be very long. Long enough to let lemurs nesting on Nine's hair and made him smarter than elementary schoolers. Which meant forever.

When Deuce's mouth was slowly opening, Ace's previous idea about finding a heart donor was flashing by his mind again. His heart was like a ticking time bomb right now. It could explode at any given moment, depending on her answer.

So much for 'nothing to lose'.

"O-of course," Deuce responded in stutter, trying her best to stay composed although she was obviously failing at it as bad as Ace right now. "I-I would love to go to on a d-date with Ace-san."

…

COULD ACE SCREAM RIGHT NOW!? BECAUSE HE WAS SCREAMING SO GODDAMN HARD IN HIS MIND RIGHT NOW!

Thank god he was not saying that out loud because he sounded like a pathetic shoujo manga protagonist just now. He couldn't hide his blush as good as his words, though. His cheeks were still beet red. "T-That's good to hear…"

The next thing that he would like to do was to not to meet Deuce's face, but that, unfortunately, turned out to be impossible, since there was a drastic change by Deuce's expression that was naught possible to miss.

There were tears by her eyes.

…

…Oh well, time to panic in Ace's end. Did he just say something that he should not? Did he just step on a landmine!?

"Ah-"

Deuce herself seemed to notice what was wrong with her body, albeit a bit slower than Ace. It took her hand moved idly to her cheek to realize that she was crying.

"D-Don't look here, A-Ace-san-!" This time, Deuce averted her face in the most extreme way possible. She turned her body along aside to have her face stuffed on the corner of the seat. "P-Please-!"

Ace did not know what he should do now. Either that, or he should just open the door right now and then jump down to kill himself for the shameful thing that he thought that he had ever did.

"My… apologies, Deuce…"

But hey, she was crying, wasn't she? Apologizing would be the right choice, definitely. Even though he definitely had no idea about why she was crying.

Unbeknownst to Ace, Deuce was probably panicking worse than Ace. She didn't expect her bodily function to work that way. It was never in her slightest intention to cry like a loser like that. Especially when she was actually so happy that trying to hold her tears was improbable!

Deuce had never thought that Ace would ever ask her to go on a date bluntly like that. Romance was never Deuce's priorities over a lot of things in her life, but she did have her type of man as she was a healthy, straight girl.

And to be frank, Ace was pretty high on her list, if not ranked first altogether. Being in relationship with Ace would probably one of her dreams came true.

"D-Don't apologize! T-This is j-just-"

"You know, it's…" Ace spoke again, his tone was a bit dejected, if any. "You don't have to force yourself to accept if you don't-"

Oh, god. He got the wrong idea… _HE GOT THE WRONG IDEA!_

Before Ace could finish the sentence, Deuce knew that she had to do something. That something was, apparently, launching her body against him, hard.

Was Ace surprised? You betcha. There were a lot of things that were being processed in his brain at the moment that he didn't even know where to start. Just now, Deuce seemed to be crying over his invitation, and now she was… hugging him?

"De…uce..?"

"T-That's not-" the brunette's voice was muffled as she muttered back with her head buried in his arms. "That's not it! I-I cried because I was so happy-!"

Ace blinked his eyes repetitively, signaling on how to confused he was right now. Still, even though Deuce couldn't see him, she continued on with her anguished confession.

"I-I…" Deuce continued, her sob halting her words for a moment. "It's just… That was the first time anyone ever asked me to a date…"

…Now that was surprising, even for Ace. "How is that even possible?"

"I don't know. I am probably not cute enough for people's standard…" Deuce said, still burying her face on his chest. "Onii-chan told me that I shouldn't really go on a date with anyone until I graduated…"

"…Oh."

Now Ace could just see what actually the case here was. Her big brother was probably being… too overprotective of his precious little sister. He probably had something to do with this. It was very understandable that other boys would back away when there was a peerless juggernaut named King threatening to blow another hole in their butts if they had ever laid a dirty finger on Deuce.

But the fact that Deuce actually accepted his offer? Ace might have to say farewell to his butt soon.

"But you accepted mine?" Ace questioned, still wondering whether he should or should not wrap his arms around Deuce's frail figure.

"Mmm," Deuce gave a small nod, brushing her hair against Ace's chest. "I want to go on a date. With Ace-san."

If only Deuce know about how good she was at making Ace's blush.

Blushing madly, Ace tried to open his mouth to say something along the lines of wanting to go on a date with Deuce as well, but only non-audible squeaks were out from the gap of his mouth.

Dirty confession of Ace over here: This was the first time that there was a girl that seemed to be so attached to him and definitely vice versa as well.

Instead of words, however, finally Ace decided to act by circling his arms around her shoulders, swallowing any embarrassment that might come. That didn't go unnoticed by Deuce as well, as she felt her face getting hotter at Ace's action.

"Ace…-san?"

"Just so you know," Ace gulped before he went on with his sentence. "That was the first time I've ever asked someone to a date as well. So we're even."

That was Deuce's turn to be surprised. Although instead of going to full-surprised mode, her lips gradually turned into a smile.

"So I'm…" Slowly, she was pulling her face away so that she could meet his eyes. "…Ace-san's first date partner?"

Deuce would never say it out loud, but that somehow made her very happy. She couldn't suppress her giggles, however. Ace was chuckling back at her in response.

"Like you've ever gone on a date yourself, Deuce."

That was the least awkward conversation they could ever have regarding each other.

When they noticed the proximity of their faces right now, however, it turned into the most awkward interaction they ever had with each other. Ace's face was only about three fingers away from Deuce's.

"…Ah…"

Unfortunately, pulling away was the hardest thing to do. Even moving any of their muscles back was not even close to a viable option. The non-violent sparks between their eyes were too strong.

"…U-Umm…."

They seemed to stop as Ace stared at Deuce's irresistible face, or more exactly, her defenseless lips. They were... flashing, as if inviting him to ram it with his.

"_We thank you for your visit!_"

…

They were _literally _stopping.

With the staff opening the door, both of them flashed out of their trances. From Deuce's end, she quickly jumped back to her seat, her breath ragged heavily as her face was painted pink. What… would have happened if the door wasn't opened?

She could tell easily that Ace was probably having the same imagination in his head. His eyes were wide, his cheeks had the same color as her's, and his mouth was agape in utter shock, after all.

"Please come back again~"

The middle-aged staff wasn't making it any easier for them to resolve the conflict in their hearts.

"Ah… U-Umm… A-Ace-san…" Deuce was the first one to break the silence, stammering pathetically. "W-We should walk out now. S-Someone else probably want to enter?"

"Y-Yeah, you're right. Let's go."

For the better or worse, at least the Wild Ride of Sexual Tension™ was done. They walked out of the small train slowly…

"My, my."

…Only to be welcomed by slow claps of a certain senior of them, his date standing beside him with a big grin plastered on her lips.

"Hee~" Cinque chimed, speaking in third-person like she had always been. "Cinque never guessed that Cinque will find Ace and Deuce here~"

"Ah… What would King say about this?" Trey quickly followed in, putting his hand around his forehead dramatically and his lips made a wide smirk. "But fear not, Deuce. I will see to it that this news about your date does not enter my best friend's ears. I, for one, am all in for your freedom to date or even go for a relationship."

...

Mission 'Stalking Trey and Cinque's date' was an utter failure.

But oh well, both of Ace and Deuce got something even better for themselves, so it was worth it.

* * *

**Well, the frequency of update for this fic is probably even more inconsistent than any other fics, since this is just a compilation of logs, which doesn't happen so often. Just in case you don't know, Deuce's fear of ghost and Ace's witty internal mind are actually canon in Agito, with the former actually shown a little bit in the final mission of Type-0, the PSP one, at least.**

**Back to finishing Starlog and Countdown to Zero now~**


End file.
